RadioShack: Would You Like a Gun With Your Satellite TV?

It’s been awhile since we wrote about odd pairs and promotional gimmicks, but this recent deal from

Photo: iStockphoto

RadioShack caught our eye. “Customers who sign up to Dish Network packaged [sic] for the first time are given a coupon for $135 (£82) to buy either a pistol or a shotgun from a local sporting goods store,” reportsThe Telegraph. Steve Strand, the owner of a store in Montana and the creator of the promotion, says subscriptions have “increased threefold” since the deal was introduced last fall. “All I can tell you is, grandma is packing a gun in Montana,” said Strand.

COMMENTS: 10

Maybe there are some residents of Montana believe that guns and televisions are complimentary goods? (For example, The Simpsons episode ‘The Cartridge Family’ where Homer gets a gun and hosts an NRA meeting at his house where he uses the gun to change the channel on his television set.)

Idaho is not Montana. Nor are either of them Nevada (where I live), though they do have certain similarities. I can’t really see the incentive, though: I have better things to do than watch TV (something that might not be true if I lived in, just for instance, Manhattan), and if I want another pistol or a shotgun (what, no rifles?), I can just go buy one without having to buy a satellite dish too.

It’s easy for us cityfolk to snicker at Montana “gun nuts” but we forget there are still parts of the country where a good shotgun really is a necessity. Just a few miles east of densely populated Silicon Valley is a large undeveloped county park in its own isolated valley. The first time I visited there, I hiked up one of the hillside trails, but turned back when the trail became to muddy from recent rains. As I descended the trail, looking out across this pristine area literally next door to Silicon Valley, it occurred to me that even mountain lions might live out here somewhere. I swear, the moment I had that thought, I glanced down to see fresh paw prints in the moist dirt coming out of the bushes on one side, crossing the trail, and disappearing into the bushes on the other side. Tracks that WERE NOT THERE when I had come up the trail not 15 minutes earlier. At that moment I certainly wished I had a shotgun, or even a good Bowie knife. But all I had was my camera. “Stay back, mountain lion, or I’ll overexpose photos of you!” I made record time back to the car.

Same incentive has been very effective for North Country bank in Michigan’s UP, a former client of mine. Around 2000, they were among the largest “dealers” of Winchester rifles in the country due to the popularity of this offer: http://snipurl.com/guncd1 [static_michaelmoore_com].
Me, I’d have chosen the Callaway golf clubs that are relegated to the fine print! Grandfather clocks were (are) a third option.

Well, I guess I assumed there’d be a lot of comments talking about how absurd this was and I’d have to come in here and explain how it’s not so absurd. But I’m pleasantly surprised to see none of those types of comments yet. So, I’ll just chime in and say having a gun around in many rural areas is like seeing a woman wearing a purse. You don’t even notice. And you also don’t have the association city folk have of guns. When you have a gun out in the country, you know that you can kill a person with it, and that in some one in a zillion odds would you ever find yourself in that situation and be ready to take care of business, but you are thinking more about the chance of coming across wild animals or dogs than a crazy person making himself worthy of shooting.